More of Tomorrow’s Classics: Music

The Voice is looking back at the best of the decade in Tomorrow’s Classics. To celebrate the end of the decade, Vox is getting in on the fun too! This week, the best of the decade’s beats, broken down by year.

2000

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven: There’s no better way to spend the better part of 87 minutes and 21 seconds than to listen to this album. Its four movements are downright moving, for lack of a better term. They may be Canadian anarchists, but Lift Your Skinny Fists… is anything but chaotic; it’s a subtle and gradual crescendo with some calming hornplay.

Modest Mouse – The Moon & Antarctica

Outkast – Stankonia

2001

At The Drive-In – Relationship of Command: At The Drive-In split up after this album to form Sparta and The Mars Volta. You can say what you will about the generic rock of Sparta and the anti-music of The Mars Volta, but this band took that whole Fugazi thing and made it their own. The energy seen on this album is over the top, but we’ll have to settle now for the psychedelic antics of whatever these guys are putting out now.

The Microphones – The Glow Pt. 2

The Strokes – Is This It?

2002

…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead – Source Tags & Codes: The band with the name that could only ever be a burden to conversation released one good album, and this is it. They were a little boring before and they’re a little boring now, but they put together 11 tracks here that go from passive to frantic to schizophrenic and back to calm. The album is consistently consistent, and was even awarded a 10 out of 10 rating by the almighty Pitchfork.

Sigur Ros – ( )

El-P – Fantastic Damage

2003

Broken Social Scene – You Forgot it in People: Canadian collective and home to Feist, Kevin Drew, and numerous other cute indie folk, Broken Social Scene have changed their sound fairly often throughout their existence. On You Forgot it in People, we see the band at their peak. The whole album has a relaxed vibe to it, and the unique collective feel helps to keep their music fresh. There’s a hell of a lot going on here.

The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow

Jay-Z – Black Album

2004

The Arcade Fire – Funeral: This album doesn’t need much of an introduction. It’s been forced down everyone’s throats as the greatest indie album ever since its release in 2004. This could be bothersome if it were in any way debatable, but it’s not.

Animal Collective – Sung Tongs

TV on the Radio – Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes

2005

Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning: Conor Oberst was almost an adult by 2005. He hadn’t yet reached the days where he would leave behind his safety blanket moniker and embrace his god given name, but this may be the best way to look at the artist. His poetic voice doesn’t ring too much of adolescent woes here as he invokes the talent of a true storyteller.

Wolf Parade – Apologies To The Queen Mary

Kanye West – Late Registration

2006

Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not: The album title is a claim that this band seems to have stuck to despite their quick rise to the top. The Arctic Monkeys didn’t even know how to play their instruments before deciding to write this album, but we’re sure as hell happy that they gave it a shot. It’s raw and it’s simple and it’s repetitive, but thpse are all good things in this context.

TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain

Lupe Fiasco – Food and Liquor

2007

Radiohead – In Rainbows: Radiohead could have been on this list at least three times by now, but to ignore In Rainbows would feel distasteful. They pretty much gave their album out for free and everyone still bought it. Bouncy textures and a new, fresh and hip Radiohead seemed to put everything in its right place (zing).

The National – Boxer

M.I.A. – Kala

2008

Fucked Up– The Chemistry of Common Life: Maybe I’m just childish and wanted to exploit this band’s name. Or maybe a hardcore punk band managed to release a record on Matador and grab the attention of music listeners of all sorts, and that’s worth noting. Or maybe they just have a cool band name. Guest vocals by the singer of Death From Above 1979.

Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles

Lil Wayne – The Carter III

2009

The Horrors – Primary Colours: Ian Curtis isn’t dead. Actually, he is. But his vision lives through these young gents from the UK. They’ve got the tonal brilliance of Closer in mind, and the vast textures of My Bloody Valentine, and they’ve even got accents. The greatest entry into post-punk revival since Interpol was good.

Dan Deacon – Bromst

The Antlers – Hospice

But where the heck are Animal Collective and Phoenix? Check out this week’s Voice to see what we considered to be the ten best albums of 2009.

Is Funeral really the best indie album ever? Let us know what you think of our choices in the comments!